10|07|2017

In 1968 Oliveira became the sole Latin American contributor to Source: Music Of The Avant Garde

The Blume label has just reissued Jocy De Oliveira’s 1981 album Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos E Eletrônicos. Oliveira, who started off her career as a concert pianist, was born in Brazil but moved to the US and Europe to study music. She has worked with Stravinsky, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, Cláudio Santoro, John Cage and Manuel Enriquez. In the 1960s she moved towards composition. Indeed, as early as 1961 she worked with Berio on a collaborative theatre piece titled Berio Apague Meu Spot Light, which is believed to be the first performance of electronic music in Brazil. She went on to become the sole Latin American contributor to Source: Music Of The Avant Garde, a publication that also featured contributions from Pauline Oliveros and Annea Lockwood, among others.

Originally released in 1981, Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos E Eletrônicos hit the ground during the last years of Brazil's military dictatorship and it was met with controversy. “Its works draw on a diverse range of the country’s musics and percussion traditions, as well as Indian raga structures and Japanese Shomyo singing – inspired in part by the sounds of immigrant communities within Sao Paulo, the city where Oliveira grew up,” explains Blume's press release.

This first time reissue of the album comes as a limited edition LP in red vinyl. You can listen to “Estoria IV Para Vozes Violino Electronico Baixo Guitarra E Percussao” from Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos